I tried tapping in all sorts of ways - nothing worked. Then I tried reflashing with OS2008, and it DID work! It seems input is only unresponsive on OS2007. The touch screen is quite wacky - it always autofires & either brings the ship all the way to the left or right depending on what side of the screen I tap.

Everything works beautifully with the N800 buttons and my bluetooth keyboard though. Many thanks to ukki and the OpenTyrian folks for bringing this gem back to life!